The Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) announced plans to extend 112 billion Birr loan for priority projects in GTP II period, according to The Reporter.

In an exclusive interview DBE’s President Esayas Bahere had with The Reporter, elaborated the Bank’s plan to increase loan supply to 112 billion; three fold than it provided in GTP I period.

The president said, in GTP I DBE has planned to approve 44 billion Birr loan and desired to distribute 38 billion Birr and collect 14 billion Birr of the loan. Yet, 80 percent of the plan was succeeded.

In the first strategic period, DBE has approved 44 billion Birr credit and distributed 26 billion Birr and has collected 13 billion Birr of the credit, Esayas told The Reporter.

Esayas noted: “DBE doesn’t have the experience of lending beyond 10 billion birr in its earliest strategic periods, thus our achievement in the first GTP was enormous.”

The Bank, from the total approved loan, will extend 104 billion Birr to Ethiopia’s priority sectors. It also plans to collect 40 billion Birr in the next five years.

DBE will give special attention on supporting small and micro manufacturing industries in Ethiopia through the recently introduced capital lease financing. With the intention to equip small scale industries with machineries and capital goods in a long-term lease arrangement, this mechanism was introduced a year ago, Esayas explained.

Thus, out of the total loan, 20 percent will be for the supply of machineries to these small scale industries in the five year strategic plan, Esayas noted.

Source: The Reporter